Baselworld is only a few weeks away. Getting the latest news is easy, Click Here for info on how to join the Watchuseek.com newsletter list. Follow our team for updates featuring event coverage, new product unveilings, watch industry news & more!

Thanks for these links! I wasn't aware of Colem for Ubuntu or jzIntv and Gens/GS, though I'd used plenty of Windows emulators for these in the 90's/early 2000's. I needed to know what was "in" on Linux

My "time" for consoles was the Intellivision/2600/5200/ColecoVision era, so I have an affinity for these, especially the CV. I clearly recall when the CV was released in Summer 1982, having pre-ordered at a Mom and Pop video game shop typical in the pre-Gamestop/Funcoland days. Ahhh, the hours of Lady Bug and Space Panic..

....I highly recommend Lady Bug on either Mame or the CV emulator- the Greatest Maze game Evar Mousetrap and Space Panic are great time wasters, too.

This is actually a port of zsnes, and, so far, I'm liking it MUCH better than zsnes because [a] audio is perfect, [b] it looks like it has more video filters, [c] 64-bit works without elbow grease, [d] it's actively maintained, [e] saving screencaps / videos couldn't be easier, and [f] it doesn't have that crappy tracker interface (if you're a musician, then you know what I'm talking about).

I haven't tried running it from the command line, though, and this is important for scripting games to run from frontends. I will update after I investigate unless someone beats me to it.

EDIT: Yep, it works! Might need some settings tweaking for it to exit like I want, but no foreseeable problems there.

This thing makes a great wireless mouse with xserver-xorg-input-joystick. Now I just need to set it up in XBMC, and I'll have an RF wireless game controller, mouse, and remote all for < $40. Pretty sweet!

This thing makes a great wireless mouse with xserver-xorg-input-joystick. Now I just need to set it up in XBMC, and I'll have an RF wireless game controller, mouse, and remote all for < $40. Pretty sweet!

...yeah, yeah- let me know when the joypad/keypad below sees the light of day and works on Linux as mouse, keyboard and joystick

This would be the dream HTPC remote/keyboard. Too bad there are no non-MS alternatives...

"If you want gameport,gamepad or joystick to work in Ubuntu you need to follow this procedure

Basics of Game Port,Gamepad and Joystick

Game Port

The game port is the traditional connector for video game input devices on an x86-based PCs. The game port is usually integrated with a PC I/O or sound card, either ISA or PCI, or as an on-board feature of some motherboards. The game port is no longer supported by Windows Vista and will thus likely largely disappear.

Gamepad

A gamepad, also called joypad or control pad, is a type of game controller held in the hand, where the digits (especially thumbs) are used to provide input. Gamepads generally feature a set of action buttons handled with the right thumb and a direction controller handled with the left. The direction controller has traditionally been a four-way digital cross (D-pad), but most modern controllers additionally (or as a substitute) feature an analog stick. The analog stick was introduced with the Atari 5200 controller, but did not reach popularity until the Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation, and Sega Saturn.

Joystick

A joystick is a personal computer peripheral or general control device consisting of a handheld stick that pivots about one end and transmits its angle in two or three dimensions to a computer. Most joysticks are two-dimensional, having two axes of movement (similar to a mouse), but three-dimensional joysticks do exist. A joystick is generally configured so that moving the stick left or right signals movement along the X axis, and moving it forward (up) or back (down) signals movement along the Y axis. In joysticks that are configured for three-dimensional movement, twisting the stick left (counter-clockwise) or right (clockwise) signals movement along the Z axis. These three axes – X Y and Z – are, in relation to an aircraft, roll, pitch, and yaw.

Now we will see how to configure some Game Port,Gamepad,Joystick modules in Ubuntu

First, we need to check if the gameport module is already loaded.

In a terminal, type the following command

lsmod

It should display a list of the currently loaded modules.

One of the lines should begin with ‘gamepad’

gameport 17160 2 snd_es1938

If you didn’t find any similar line, look for the way to enable the gameport for your specific sound card in the list below.

Now, we need to setup the gamepad/joystick.Again in a terminal, type the following

sudo modprobe joydev

Testing and calibrating the gamepad/joystick

If you want to check if everything’s working correctly or/and you want to callibrate your device, you can try out jscalibrator.

What is jscalibrator ?

GTK Joystick Calibrator With jscalibrator you can calibrate your joystick for Linux games. The Joystick Wrapper library (libjsw) is designed to provide a uniform API and user configuration for joysticks and other game controllers on all platforms.

It features an integrated library level calibration system using jscalibrator to provide a one time calibration for any program that uses libjsw. libjsw also features several levels of advanced joystick input error correction.

Install jscalibrator in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install jscalibrator

If you want to use this program run the following command from your terminal

jscalibrator

A new window should appear which should allow you to test and calibrate your device.

List of gameports, gamepads/joysticks and their corresponding commands

Gameports

Classic ISA/PnP gameports

sudo modprobe ns558

Crystal SoundFusion gameports

sudo modprobe cs461x

Aureal Vortex and Trident 4DWave gameports

sudo modprobe pcigame

SoundBlaster Live! gameports

sudo modprobe emu10k1-gp

Any other gameports(If your sound card isn’t one of the above and you couldn’t find it in lsmod, try this command)

sudo modprobe gameport

Gamepads and joysticks

Analog joysticks and gamepads: (Most gamepads and joysticks, especially generic ones, work well with this one)

PlayDeb is an unofficial project with the mission to provide the latest open source and freeware games for the current Ubuntu Linux release, in an easy to install manner.

The PlayDeb repository extends the official repositories by providing latest versions and new games. Unlike the official packages, PlayDeb packages do not have a predefined release schedule - new game versions are provided as they become available from their authors.